The Internet has made enrolling in college a quick, easy process.

College registration no longer involves long lines for advisement and hours spent filling out forms in the financial aid office.

Technology has eliminated the need for much of the time and paperwork that made enrolling in college classes almost as stressful as final exams.

"Technology has come a long way," said Judith Edwin, dean of enrollment management at Savannah State University. "Everyone is registering online and accessing their accounts via the Internet."

For five to 10 years, colleges and universities in Georgia have been using Internet technology to expedite the enrollment process.

Savannah State students file financial aid forms, register, pay for classes and check for grades with an online system they call PAWS.

Enrolling students can do in minutes what used to take days.

Seemingly endless lines for financial aid refund checks are also a thing of the past. SSU uses a system that credits a student's financial aid debit card so checks don't have to be issued.

There are no more book vouchers either.

Information about student grants for textbooks is stored in the bookstore computer.

Armstrong Atlantic State University junior Amber Knight sat at a courtyard table just outside her campus bookstore Thursday just before the noontime rush.

Because the tiny bookstore can accommodate only about five students at a time, the line was about 20 people deep. In years past that line has stretched around the corner.

Knight already had purchased her textbooks.

"I registered online in April and I got my books on Monday," she said. "It took 30 minutes, maybe."

Armstrong, like Savannah State, has offered online enrollment for about five years.

Now, 98 percent of all registration procedures at Armstrong are done via the Internet, said Kim West, Armstrong's registrar and dean of enrollment services.

"The goal is to make it paperless for the student from the point of admission through financial aid and all the way to graduation," West said.

Early and streamlined registration days help simplify the process for new students.

Savannah Technical College is implementing a "One Stop" registration concept that enables students to take care of financial aid, registration and payments, and purchase parking decals at once.

And Savannah State offers a similar service during its freshman summer registration program called Little Touch by the Sea.

"All students have to do is move in," Edwin said. "They can even buy their books early."

During the eight sessions offered this summer, about 500 new SSU freshmen registered.

In the 1960s and '70s, when institutions used computer punch cards to store student registration information, the process required students to go from department to department with stacks of paperwork, seeking stamps and signatures.

By the late 1970s and early '80s, enrollment staff were retrieving data from personal computers, but only after students had waited in long lines to submit their documents.

Most colleges and universities implemented systems that allowed students to register themselves during the 1990s, West said.

"We had a span where we offered phone registration," he said. "But as the Web became more popular, phone registration decreased."

Now students can click a mouse and get everything, from grades to advisement.

Armstrong has had a virtual adviser since 2004. The online service can answer 150 basic enrollment questions in real time.

This year Georgia Southern University stopped accepting credit cards as payment for tuition, fees, housing and meal plans and introduced two new online payment options.

Traditionalists can still mail or hand deliver cash and check payments to the Office of Student Fees. But students who use credit cards must pay online through a third-party system. Electronic check payments can also be made through a new online service.